For 6 war vets, Islandia housing comes 'just in time'

After about six years of active duty, Marine Staff Sgt. Shawn Hunkins, 27, like many returning veterans, had trouble readjusting to civilian life. Long Island Home Builders Care Development Corp. is helping Hunkins and five other young veterans and their families by building for them six three-bedroom houses in Islandia. Videojournalist: Heather Walsh (Sept. 24, 2013)

After about six years of active duty, Marine Staff Sgt. Shawn Hunkins, 27, like many returning veterans, had trouble readjusting to civilian life. Long Island Home Builders Care Development Corp. is helping Hunkins and five other young veterans and their families by building for them six three-bedroom houses in Islandia, in the nation's first affordable housing only for veterans. Videojournalist: Heather Walsh (Sept. 24, 2013)

Six post-9/11 veterans will be home for the holidays this Christmas -- in houses built especially for them in a new, all-veterans subdivision in Islandia. The three-bedroom houses are being built by a local builders organization with donated materials and labor, on land donated by CA Technologies, and will be sold for $199,000 each. That is less than half what they would normally cost, according...

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Six post-9/11 veterans will be home for the holidays this Christmas -- in houses built especially for them in a new, all-veterans subdivision in Islandia.

The three-bedroom houses are being built by a local builders organization with donated materials and labor, on land donated by CA Technologies, and will be sold for $199,000 each. That is less than half what they would normally cost, according to Long Island Home Builders Care Development Corp., the organization building the houses.

For Paul Milazzo, 28, a former Marine Corps lance corporal now living in Valley Stream, the home could not come at a better time. His wife, Marianne, is expecting their first child in a few weeks.

"I think it's great that we all have a military background in common," said Milazzo, as he and his soon-to-be new neighbors walked through the building site, a 3.5-acre tract on Motor Parkway. "We have all been brothers, and always will be."

The six veterans were chosen by a panel of Veterans of Foreign Wars post commanders from among some 130 people who served in Iraq or Afghanistan.

Each of the other recipients -- Jason Broyles, 32, of North Bellmore; Shawn Hunkins, 27, of Bohemia; Eric Petry, 28, of East Islip; Thomas Schreiber, 32, of East Rockaway; and Timothy Ward, 33, of Bayport -- has said the high cost of housing threatened to thwart their desire to live on Long Island, close to family and friends.

Military families often find it difficult to save up money to buy homes on Long Island. A lower-ranking lance corporal like Milazzo earns a base pay of about $24,000 per year after four years of service.

Hunkins, a Marine Reserve staff sergeant, is living with his wife and three children in his in-laws' basement in Bohemia. Petry, a recently discharged Marine with a wife and daughter, splits time between his parents' and his in-laws' homes.